Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 120838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 604(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 604(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
I’d had exactly two dates since I’d dumped Chad on the altar, and they’d both been disasters.
Good Lord, I didn’t even know what my type was.
“Blake?” Chloe called.
I got out of my head and into the conversation.
“You sure you’re okay?” she asked, not hiding she was scrutinizing me.
“I’ve just got a checklist on my mind,” I lied again.
“If you need any help…” she offered, not for the first time.
“You’ve been really great with hooking me up with vendors in Prescott already,” I told her. “And everything is set. I’m just fretting. It’ll all be fine.”
“You know you can ask me. Or Mom. Or Nora. Mika. Gal or Katie,” she stressed (yes, again).
I nodded. “I know. We’ll go over everything at the meeting in the morning, just in case I’m not around to see to something.”
She glanced over at Dair then came back to me.
“He’s very good looking,” she noted.
“He’s not my type,” I decreed. Then foolishly continued, “As the saying goes, football is a gentleman's game played by hooligans, and rugby is a hooligan's game played by gentlemen. But unlike other gentlemen who play that game, Dair doesn’t leave the hooligan on the pitch.”
Chloe appeared bewildered, and she explained it. “Your mom said you two were an item.”
What?
Oh my God!
Why would she say that?
“I worried you guys were fighting,” Chloe went on. “You’ve barely said anything to him.”
“That’s because he, nor his family, were invited tonight,” I informed her. “Davina is okay, though she never had much use for me. But Dair has always been an asshole and that hasn’t changed, case in point, our most recent conversation.”
“He sure can’t take his eyes off you for someone who’s just been an asshole to you.”
I felt frisson tingle down my spine.
Okay.
What was that?
Resolutely, I shook it off.
“We’re not an item,” I asserted. “I’ve never understood how Mum’s mind worked and now is no exception. Though the Wallaces are obscenely wealthy, and since every available bachelor over the one hundred-million-dollar mark on the east coast won’t have anything to do with me after what I did to Chad, and the something I do know about Mum is that she wants me to land an heir to some financial throne, she’s likely casting a wider net.”
Chloe tipped her head to the side. “Maybe, ma bonne amie, she’s seeing something you don’t.”
I glanced to where I left Dair, only to see he wasn’t there.
He’d changed huddles and was now grinning flirtatiously at Katie.
I turned back to Chloe. “And maybe she’s seeing he’s a huge flirt and hope is springing eternal.”
“Maybe,” she murmured, her gaze sliding toward Dair.
The bartender handed me my wine and I thanked her before taking a sip that many would describe as a gulp.
Alex came up to us and put her arm around my waist.
“This is great, Blake,” she gushed. “Just perfect.”
I studied my younger sister.
Then I spoke.
“You are cordially invited to leave at any time,” I replied to my introverted, hates-crowds, hates-parties, hates-lots-of-people-around sister. “Food has been consumed. Toasts have been made. You have officially done your duty to your rehearsal dinner, and no one will think a thing about it if you and Rix take off.”
“God,” she whispered, her hazel eyes dancing happily, “I love you.”
I stilled at the sentiment and how much she sounded like she meant it.
To say we weren’t close growing up was an understatement.
Since the Chad thing, I’d been trying, she’d been trying.
But I didn’t think she’d ever said anything like that to me.
It felt amazing.
She kissed my cheek, shot a smile at Chloe and made a beeline to Rix.
Chloe moved closer “I cannot tell you how relieved she was when you took over planning the wedding.”
“I’m glad,” I said distractedly before taking another, much more demure sip of wine.
“I told her I’d do it, but with the pregnancy and the baby coming and running the shops and all…” Chloe let that trail.
“I’ve loved doing it,” I said.
And I had.
If I could put up with bitches like the me I used to be who were having weddings, I’d start my own business doing this kind of thing, I loved it so much.
Since there was no way in hell I’d be able to put up with bitches like the me I used to be, that was out.
Nothing else had come in.
I’d been trying to find myself for four years.
In that time, I realized I liked cooking, thus now, I did it a lot. I realized it felt good to give my father peace of mind about something after spending years giving him no peace of mind at all. And I realized I was radioactive to men after my situation with Chad went viral on social media.
Not a good tally sheet.
But I’d been fucking up for three decades by the time I got my head out of my ass. Four years was nothing.